Pike Place Fish: Keep on Chuckin'!

Did you hear that PETA was protesting the Pike Place Fish Market, the seafood stall in Pike Place Market, famous for throwing the DEAD fish customers purchase?

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From the LA Times June 13, 2009:

"Asserting that the practice of lobbing fish above the heads of patrons and tourists at the market and other venues is "disrespectful" to creatures that already have gone through a lot, an animal rights group is protesting plans to stage a flying-fish exhibition at an upcoming national veterinarians conference in Seattle.

Ultimately, they would like to see the practice banned at the fish market too, arguing that tourists would not be nearly so eager to snap photos if dead kittens or gutted lambs were sailing over their heads.

"Killing animals so you can toss their bodies around for amusement is just twisted," said Ashley Byrne, senior campaigner for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Washington, D.C."

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The fishmongers' voices boom across the market, calling out orders to their cohorts behind the counter and tossing whole, slippery salmon 10 yards through the air, only to be expertly caught on the other end, wrapped quickly in paper, and packed in ice for ecstatic customers and applauding tourists. It's quintessential Seattle, a living history of our seafood-loving culture.

Enter PETA. Protesting the throwing of DEAD fish.

You do realize that PETA would never waste their time on something that INANE.

No, bigger forces are at work here, which reek of a marketing ploy to attract more tourists, devised by none other than the Pike Place Market itself!! Talk about GENIUS!!